LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 









3 1)0. 







Shelf t-fifc 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



/ 

GREAT TRUTHS: 



Br 

/ / 

MGR. DE SEGtJR. 



Author of Frequent Communion, Confession, 
Short and Familiar Answers to Objec- 
tions against Religion, &a 



T RAN SLA TED FROM THE FRENCH 



BY A 



CATHOLIC PRIEST, 



\V 



V 

NEW YORK r 
£. O'SHEA, AGENT, 
37 Barclay Street, 



The Library 
of Congress 

washington 



ts>v n 



55 



Copyright, 1880, by P. O'Shea. 



LC Control Number 



tmp96 031774 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 



L 

Is it absolutely certain that we are not beasts 5 
II. " 

Is it absolutely certain that there is a living God, 
Creator of all things ? 12 

III. 

Is it absolutely certain that there is a true relig- 
ion, and that we cannot ignore it ?. * 16 

IV. 

Is it absolutely certain that the Christian religion 
is the true religion ? * 19 

V. 

Is it absolutely certain that the Christian religion 
is the only true religion ? 24 

VI. 

Is it absolutely certain that Jesus Christ is God 
made Man ? . . « 27 



4 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

VII. 

Is it absolutely certain that the Catholic Church 
is the only true Church of Jesus Christ 35 

VIII. 

Is it absolutely certain that we cannot be deceiv- 
ed in hearkening to the Pope and the Bishops, 
, the Pastors of the Catholic Church ? 42 

IX. 

Is it absolutely certain that it does not suffice to 
be an honest man, but that it is absolutely 
necessary to practice religion ? 47 



GREAT TRUTHS, 

BY 

MONSEIGNEUR DE SEGUB. 



I. 

13 IT ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT WE ARE NOT 
BEASTS ? 

Not long ago a kind hearted man, 
who was a well-to-do farmer of a depart- 
ment in the neighborhood of Paris, al- 
lowed himself to be indoctrinated by a 
certain Free Mason, an ardent reader of 
the Steele, and a warm partizan of So- 
cialism. The farmer, returning one 
evening from his work, commenced to 
think — in the style of a barbarian. 

He buried his head in his hands, in 
order to have clearer ideas ; and thus, 



6 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



reflecting and reasoning after his fash- 
ion, he asked himself this question — 
Whether there was an essential differ- 
ence — a difference worth speaking of, 
between him and his dog, his cat, his 
ass or his ox. 4 ' My dog, 5 ' he said, ' ' it 
is true, has four feet, and I have but 
two. He has a head ; so have I. He 
eats and I eat. He drinks, and so do I. 
He sleeps, he gets warm, he becomes 
cold, he hears, he sees, he breathes, and 
so do I. He is very intelligent, and I 
am not such a great blockhead myself. 
He lives, he gets sick and dies ; and I 
live as he does, and one day I will die. 
Is it not absolutely the same thing?" 

A neighbor meanwhile enters. It was 
the physician, a man skilled in his pro- 
fession (although a country physician), 
and, what was better still, an honest 
man and very learned. 

After the usual polite salutation^ 



GREAT TRUTHS. V 

the physician said: "What now is 
wrong with you, neighbor I You look 
very queer to-day." " Well, I am re- 
jecting," answers the kind-hearted 
man, " and it seems to me that there is 
very little difference between us and 
the beasts." And he moreover under- 
took to develop his ideas. 

The physician, pressing his lips in 
order not to laugh, let him tell his 
story; and when he had finished: 
" Now listen well, my good man," said 
he to him very gravely, " you are noth- 
ing but a beast, a brute, a mere ani- 
mal." 

The farmer looks at him, stands up, 
frowns and shuts his fist: "What is 
this that you say f • he Gried out in an- 
ger ; " you insult me !" 

"Not at all," quietly answered the 
other ; "I simply say the same as you 
do';- 1 say that you are what you be- 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



lieve yourself to be." And commenc- 
ing to speak seriously with the poor, 
simple man, he showed him of what 
value his reasonings were, and whither 
bad doctrines lead us. 

The farmer had great reason to be 
filled with indignation at hearing him- 
self called a beast, a brute, a mere ani- 
mal- And when a comrade hearing 
you speak, instead of giving an answer, 
begins to call you " a beast, a brute, a 
mere animal," you would become very 
angry, and would very likely answer 
by giving him a blow with your fist; 
and you would have good reason to do 
it, and why sol Because, to confound 
man with the beast, is to insult him 
grossly ; it is to deprive him of his rea- 
son and of those qualities that he holds 
dearest. 

It is the same among the impious and 
the atheists, good sense yet remains— 



GREAT TRUTHS. 9 

common sense — which attests and cries 
out to us : Man is not a beast ; man is 
above the animal, inasmuch as he is en* 
dowed with a reason, a conscience and 
a soul. 

The brute has not, like us, a reason- 
able and immortal soul ; he acts but by 
instinct, without ever being able to 
perfect himself, without ever being ca- 
pable of good or of evil, whilst man 
has an immortal soul, reasonable, free, 
capable of reflecting and of judging, 
capable of meriting by doing good, and 
demeriting by doing evil. 

That which thinks in us is our soul ; 
that which in us is generous, devoted, 
loving, good, patient, charitable, is our 
soul ; and with the wicked, it is still 
the soul that does evil, that deceives 
his neighbor, plots and meditates evil 
doings. The body is but the instru- 
men t of the soul, sometimes for good, 



10 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



sometimes for evil ; the soul is in the 
body as is the workman in the midst of 
his tools. It is the workman who works; 
yet he works but by means of his tools. 

Man is, then, composed of a soul and 
of a body ; the animal, on the contrary, 
has but a body, with some instincts that 
God has given it for the preservation 
and the well-being of its body. These 
instincts are blind forces, irresistible 
powers which it follows without know- 
ing why. It has not, like us, a reason- 
able and free soul, capable of knowing 
the truth, of loving and wishing well to 
our neighbor. It is this that constitutes 
between man and beast such a vast dif- 
ference. Man is a person, while the 
beast is but a thing. 

All people, ancient and modern, all 
great men, even pagans and idolaters, 
have agreed on this point. 

Do you know who are the persons 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



11 



that doubt of the existence of the soul 1 
They are those who live as beasts. 
Lately, at Paris, a person brought to a 
good Religious an apprentice, fifteen 
or sixteen years of age, whose bad con- 
duct made his honest parents despair 
of him. The Religious spoke to him 
with sweetness and firmness, trying to 
make him re-enter into himself and to 
lead him to repentance. All his efforts 
were useless. The miserable fellow, al- 
ways answering in a surly voice, said : 
" I wish to be a dog, to do evil without 
remorse!" Such are the class of per- 
sons who doubt about their soul, and 
who finish sometimes by persuading 
themselves that they have not one. 

It is then quite sure and absolutely 
certain that we are not beasts ; and you 
in particular, my dear reader, by the 
very fact that you understand what I 
say, and judge that I reason correctly, 



GREAT TRUTHS, 



you show that, far from being a beast, 
you have a mind capable of judging. 
This is your soul, and it is your soul 1 
alone that gives you the power of think- 
ing and judging. 



11, 

IS IT ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT THERE IS A 
LIVING GOD, CREATOR OE ALL THINGS? 

This is also so certain, so evident, 
that there was never a people in any 
age who has doubted of it. They have, 
indeed, often altered the idea of a God ; 
but never have they been able to de- 
stroy it. This grand voice of humanity 
which proclaims that there is a living 
Gfod, Creator of all things, is the voice 
of common sense— that is to say, of the 
common sentiment of all men. 

If any one were to think otherwise^ 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



13 



he would not have common sense ; this 
is evident. What folly, then, to imag- 
ine that one is right in opposition to 
the opinion of the whole world ; above 
all, when at the head of this innumer- 
able host are found the greatest ge- 
niuses, the most profound philoso- 
phers, the learned, the most respected ! 

Just as in looking at your clock it 
is impossible for you to doubt that 
there was a clock-maker, so, in viewing 
the immense and marvellous machine 
which they call the universe, it is im- 
possible for a man of good sense to 
doubt for a single moment that there is 
a Being, Creator of all things, sover- 
eignly powerful, infinitely wise ; a Be- 
ing supreme, sovereign, on whom all 
depends, and who depends on nothing, 
who has created all and who has not 
been made. Now, this is that admira- 
ble, eternal, incomprehensible, all-per- 



14 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



feet, infinite Being who is called God. 

The word God signifies : I am who 
am, When you hear some grossly ig- 
norant person, or some wicked and im- 
pious fellow say : " There is no God," 
it is as if he said : That one who is is 
not. This is absurd, is it not so? Just 
as if one wanted to say that what is 
white is not white ; that what is round 
is not round, and that two and two do 
not make four. 

Bear it well in mind ; people doubt 
the existence of the good God only 
when they have an interest to do so. 
Where does one ordinarily hear this 
foul blasphemy % In the public houses, 
uttered by filthy drunkards ; in the 
prison cells and places of confinement 
for galley slaves, uttered by thieves, 
scoundrels, jail birds, those who are 
truly wicked — the offcasts of society. 
This cry comes from below, never from 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



15 



on high. It accompanies crime, never 
virtue. 

Then, in regard to this point as for 
the preceding, you can be absolutely 
certain, my dear reader, that there is a 
God, Creator and Sovereign Lord of all 
that exists. We cannot see Him with 
the eyes of the body, because He is a 
pure Spirit ! It is the same in regard 
to my soul, which you do not see, and 
which you do not touch, yet it really 
exists for all that. God is everywhere 
and in all things ; He is within us, in 
our soul ; He sees us at all times and 
places, and nothing, not even the most 
secret thoughts, can be concealed from 
His all-powerful gaze. 

Dogs, cats and other animals do not 
know God, their Creator ; but they 
have the sense not to boast of it. Men 
who say that there is no God, and who 
boast of it, descend lower than animals. 



16 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



They do not believe the first word of 
what they say, and it is not necessary 
to take the trouble to make them seri- 
ous. 

l 



III. 

IS IT ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT THERE IS 
A TRUE RELIGION, AND THAT WE CANNOT 
IGNORE IT ? 

That there is a true religion is a neces- 
sity, as is the existence of God ; it is a 
truth proclaimed by common sense, ad- 
mitted by all peoples and at all times, 
openly professed by the entire human 
race. 

Religion is that which unites God to 
man and man to God. Religion is the 
knowledge of God, the service of God 
and the love of God. 

It is quite evident that, having re- 
ceived from God an intelligence capa- 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



17 



ble of knowing Him, we should, before 
everything else, seek to know our God 
) and Creator, for this knowledge is the 
! most important, the grandest, the most 
excellent that we can ever acquire. 

It is evident also that, created by God 
and for God, we belong to Him, we are 
His servants and His children ; that we 
should obey His laws ; that we should 
render to Him all the homage that He 
deserves; should adore Him because 
He is God ; pray to Him because He is 
the source of all good ; love Him be- 
cause He is our Father and the best of 
Fathers ; obey Him because He is the 
Supreme Master ; fear His justice be- 
cause He is infinitely holy and detests 
evil. We are on this earth, before all 
other things, in order thus to know, to 
servo and to love our God and Creator. 

And religion is nothing else than the 
assemblage of all our homages and of 



18 



GREAT TRUTHS, 



all these duties. From tlie commence- 
ment of the world, God revealed Him- 
self, that is to say made Himself known 

I to the first man, and Himself deigned 
to teach what was good and what was 
evil, what it was necessary to believe 
and to do in order to accomplish the 
will of the Creator. 

There is, then, a true religion as there 
is a true God. Heligion is the principal 
business of all men who have been, who 
are and who will be. A man without 
religion is an eye without light, a body 
without life, a fish out of water. The 
person who lives without religion is a 
being gone astray, a poor, ignorant 
creature who does not know why he 

f exists, a bad son who forgets and blas- 
phemes his father. Religion is the 
nourishment of the soul, the true life 
of the soul, the first and the most es- 
sential of all goods. 



G KE AT TRUTHS. 



19 



Then it is absolutely certain that 
there is a true religion, and that it is 
impossible for a reasonable man to live 
without religion. 



15 IT ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT THE CHRIS- 
TIAN RELIGION IS THE TRUE RELIGION? 

The most intelligent and impudent of 
our impious ones very frankly confess 
that if there is a God and a religion, 
this God is the God of Christians, and 
this religion the Christian religion. 
This acknowledgement is sufficient for 
us to be certain that the Christian re- 
ligion is the true religion ; because, on 
the one side, common sense clearly at- 
tests the evidence of the existence of 
God, likewise the necessity and exist- 



20 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



ence of religion in general, and on flie 
other, our enemies confess that, if this 
is the case, the Christian religion is di- 
vine. 

The Christian religion is the only relig- 
ion that has proofs. The false religions 
(the Mahometanism of the Turks and 
of the Bedouins, the Buddhism of the 
peoples of Asia, the fetechfem of the 
savages and of the negroes, the idola- 
try of the pagans) cannot sustain the 
examination of a serious man ; and one 
easily sees that they are human inven- 
tions, without proofs, without founda- 
tion. The true religion, on the con- 
trary, carries conviction with it at first 
sight to the reason of man, and even 
when she tells him to believe things 
which he cannot understand, she makes 
him understand very clearly that he 
should accept and believe them without 
understanding them. The true religion 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



21 



sets fortli lier titles before our reason, 
as lionest people voluntarily show their 
passports to the public officers ; and 
these public officers, instead of stop- 
# ping those who carry them, give them 
aid and protection. The rogue, on the 
contrary, has no passport, or, what is 
worse, he has only a false one ; and if 
the officer is a little sharp, he easily 
perceives it and seizes at once both the 
man and the passport. 

The Christian religion, being true and 
divine, being made for men in order to 
render them good and happy, does not 
fear the scrutinizing gaze of human rea- 
son ; very far from this, she courts the 
examination of all men, exposes to 
them the proofs of her divinity, answers 
clearly their difficulties, and in enjoin- 
ing on them all, on the part of God, to 
submit to her authority, she only de- 
mands from them, a submission agree- 



22 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



able to reason, and consequently reason- 
able. 

The incredulous are men who do not 
reason, or who reason badly. This rule 
has no exceptions. They revile, they 
calumniate, they get angry ; but they 
do not reason at all. They despise what 
they ignore ; in attacking Christianity, 
they do not understand what they say, 
or perhaps, what happens still oftener, 
they do not believe what they say. 
We Christians are altogether different : 
we give good sound reasons for our be- 
lief; we are logical and reasonable men; 
we believe what we affirm. 

And let no one say : ' ' Every religion 
says the same thing. " This is not true. 
* False religions have no proofs, and 
they do not care about having any ; 
they are composed of superstition more 
or less gross, which are imposed on 
men, sometimes by the sword and by 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



29 



fear, as Mahometanism ; sometimes by 
the sole force of habit, as the prevailing 
religions of Asia and of Africa. More- 
over, they are all very convenient, they 
flatter the passions, and every one 
knows how men are disposed to adopt 
as true the doctrines that flatter them. 

The Christian religion is the true re- 
ligion, the true worship of the true 
God. What it teaches, it is God who 
teaches it ; what it orders, what it pro- 
hibits, it is God who orders and who 
prohibits it. 

It embraces all ages ; it runs back 
even to the cradle of the world, even 
to the first man to whom God has re- 
vealed it ; it will last to the end of the 
world, and even when time is no more, 
during all eternity. 

The more one studies it, the more 
logical, beautiful, harmonious, grand, 
admirable he finds it. It rests on proofs 



24 



GEE AT T11UTHS. 



that cannot be gainsaid ; it is as a fort- 
ress built on a rock ; it is true, it is di- 
vine ; it comes from God, it leads to I 
God ; it is the true religion of God. 



V. 

IS IT ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT THE CHRISTIAN 
RELIGION IS THE ONLY TRUE RELIGION? 

If it is the true religion, it is the only 
true one ; because there cannot be on 
the earth two true religions. 

Indeed, of two things, it must be 
either one or the other ; either the two 
religions teach the same doctrines and 
command the same things, or they 
teach different doctrines and impose 
different laws. In the first case, they 
are not two distinct religions, but one 
and the same. In the second, either of 



GREAT TKUTIIS. 



25 



the two is necessarily in error. Yes 
and No cannot be true at the same time 
in regard to the same thing. For ex- 
ample : The Christian religion teaches 
that there are three persons in one God; 
that the second divine person became 
man ; that the Pope and the Catholic 
Bishops are the legitimate ministers of 
religion, and that men should believe 
them and obey them if they wish to 
save their souls. It teaches that there 
are seven sacraments ; that Jesus Christ 
is present in the Sacrament of the Eu- 
charist ; that after death there is the 
judgment, followed by eternal happi- 
ness for the good, and by eternal mis- 
ery for the wicked, etc. Take another 
religion. On several, or even on one of 
these points, it teaches differently from 
the Christian religion. It is evident 
that either one or the other is mistaken. 
Now, a religion that teaches error, if 



26 GREAT TRUTHS. 

but on one point alone, is not, cannot 
be, the true religion of the God of 
truth. God cannot be mistaken, and 
His religion, which is His word, His 
teaching, His law, is equally inaccessi- 
ble to error. 

There are not, then, on the earth two 
true religions. With the exception of 
the Christian religion, all the other re- 
ligions of the earth are false. They are 
perversions of the true religion devi- 
ating more or less from the truth. All 
the truth and goodness that one sees 
in them belongs to Christianity — comes 
from Christianity. 

Among the false religions, the least 
remote from the true religion is the 
Russian and Greek schism ; after that, 
the Anglican heresy ; then Lutheran- 
ism ; then the Calvanistic sects ; then 
Judaism ; then Mahometanism ; then 
the Buddhism of India and of China ; 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



27 



in fine, the brvital idolatry and fetich- 
ism of the poor savages. 

Unbelievers and atheists are outside 
all this, because they do not preserve 
even the notion of a God and of a re- 4 
ligion. 

In religion, as in mathematics, truth 
is absolute. That which is true is true, 
and whatever deviates from the truth, 
falls immediately and necessarily into 
error. Let us thank God that we are 
Christians and that we possess the true 
religion. 



VI. 

IS IT ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT JESUS CHRIST 
IS GOD MADE MAN? 

This point, which is the centre of the i 
Christian religion, is also as certain as 
the existence of God. Either there is 
no God, no soul, no good, no evil, no 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



truth, no error ; either this, or Jesus 
Christ is God and the Christian religion 
is divine. Our incredulous moderns 
confess this openly ; and it is because 
Jthey do not wish to believe in Jesus 
Christ that they are led to speak thus 
in spite of themselves, or else impu- 
dently to deny the existence of God, or 
at least to conceal this frightful blas- 
phemy under beautiful words destined 
to make their disciples swallow the 
bitter draught. 

The miracles of our Lord Jesus v 
Christ, and above all the sublime mira- 
cles of His Resurrection and of His 
Ascension to heaven, worked in open 
day before hundreds and thousands of 
witnesses, in presence of enraged ene- 
mies who were all powerful and capa- 
ble of judging aright, are indeed proofs 
so evident of the divinity of the Son of 
Mary, that the incredulous* even the 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



most cunning, such as Voltaire, Rous- 
seau, Renan and company, are com- 
pelled by them, when they wish to ex- 
plain them, to speak such gross fool- 
ishness that they seem to ridicule their 
readers and hearers. , They do all that 
they can ; but what can they do against 
truth? How can one prove that two 
and two do not make four ? How prove 
that what is true is not true ! That Je- 
rusalem has not seen what it has seen? 
That the appearance of the world has 
been changed without cause 1 

The Jews, at seeing the miracles of 
Jesus Christ and of His Apostles, said 
among themselves with a fruitless an- 
ger : ' ' They perform miracles, and we 
cannot deny it!" If the Jews them- 
selves could not deny it, because it 
w^as too evident, too palpable, who can 
reasonably deny it? Our poor unbe- 
lievers are, in truth, worse than the. 



30 CTKEAT TROTHS. 

Jews ; they could at least remonstrate 
against it to Caiphas and to Pilate. 

Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of 
jGod, equal to . the Father and to the 
Holy Ghost, made man in the womb of 
the Virgin Mary. Jesus Christ is God 
in the midst of us ; He is the Creator, 
the Lord and the Saviour of men ; He 
came down in the midst of us in order 
to be the Head of Religion, the High 
Priest of God here below, the Doctor 
of Truth and the perfect model of sanc- 
tity and of virtue. 

He dwelt during thirty -three years on 
this earth, of which He was the Cre- 
ator and the Lord. Before leaving it 
on the day of the Ascension, in order 
to enter again into the glory of His 
Father, He has found the means in the 
Holy Eucharist of dwelling always 
with us and in us, even to that solemn 
day when He will descend, full of glory 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



31 



and of majesty, to judge the living and 
the dead ; that is to say, the good and 
the bad, to render to each one accord- 
ing to his works ! 

. When He was in our midst, He de- 
clared openly that He was the Son of 
God made man, the Envoy of the 
Heavenly Father. He called Himself 
God, and He proved His saying by 
works which God alone could do. " If 
you do not believe my words, believe 
at least my miracles," said He in effect 
to the rebellious Jews. By a single 
word, by the sole touch of His hand, 
He restored sight to the blind, hearing 
to the deaf, motion and strength to the 
paralyzed and to the infirm ; appeased 
f by a gesture the winds and the tempest; 
multiplied the loaves of bread in the 
desert, in order to feed the innumerable 
crowds that followed Him so eagerly to 
hear His words ; in shorty He raised the 



32 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



dead to life, and every one knows the 
touching and memorable history of the 
raising to life of Lazarus. 
I Jesus Christ then has proven His di- 
vinity in an unexceptionable manner ; 
so that ignorance alone, or bad faith 
prevent people from adoring Him. If 
He has veiled His divine majesty under 
poor and humble appearances, it is be- 
cause He has wished to do so in order 
to take on Himself the expiation and 
painful consequences of the sins of the 
world. He became poor in order to 
make atonement for our inordinate love 
of riches ; He humbled Himself to ex- 
piate our pride ; He suffered in order 
to atone for forbidden pleasures ; He 
wished to die and to die on a cross in 
order to redeem us from eternal death. 
It is then through love for us, and not 
for any want of power, that Our Lord 
Jesus Christ did not manifest Himself 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



33 



all resplendent in glory : it is only at 
the end of the world, when He will 
come again to judge mankind; that we 
all will be witnesses of His glory. 
' We should love him more on this ac- 
count ; because the measure of His 
humiliations, is the measure of His 
mercy ; and Jesus is not only our Grod, 
He is moreover our good and our ex- 
ceedingly good God. 

Let us prostrate ourselves at His feet, 
as the Apostle St. Thomas who was so 
incredulous at first, and even obstinate- 
ly incredulous : he did not wish to be- 
lieve in the Resurrection of his Master, 
although the other disciples assured 
him that they had seen with their eyes 
Jesus Christ arisen again, that they had 
touched Him with their hands, heard 
Him with their ears, and that too at 
various times. " Unless, " said Thomas, 
"I shall see in His hands the print of 



34 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



the nails and put my finger into the 
place of the nails, and put my hand in- 
to His side I will not believe." Eight 
days after the Resurrection, St. Thomas 
and the other Apostles being again as- 
sembled in the hall of the Cenacle, the 
doors and windows being shut, Jesus 
Christ appeared suddenly in the midst 
of them and turning towards the aston- 
ished St. Thomas said: " Thomas, put 
in thy finger hither and see my hands, 
and bring hither thy hand and put it in- 
to my side ; and be not incredulous, but 
faithful." The Apostle, overcome by 
the evidence prostrated himself at the 
feet of Jesus and cried out : "My Lord 
and my God!" "Because thou hast 
seen me Thomas, thou hast believed :" 
said Our Saviour rebukingly to him \ % 
"Blessed are they who have not seen 
and Jiave believed!" 
These blessed ones are those faithful 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



35 



Christians who adore Jesus Christ as 
their Saviour and their God : in heaven 

I 

they will see Him face to face and enjoy 
with Him His eternal happiness. 

Those who do not wish to believe in 
Jesus Christ are the reprobate : they 
will have no part in the salvation of the 
just, and the eternal despair of hell will 
be the just punishment of their revolt. 



VII. 

IS IT ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT THE CATHO- 
LIC CHURCH IS THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH OF 
JESUS CHRIST? 

You see, my dear reader, that the 
existence of your soul, the existence of 
God, the divinity of the Christian reli- 
gion and of Jesus Christ, its Head and 
Author, are indeed very great truths, 
demonstrated by the common sense o$ 



36 



GEE AT TRUTHS. 



mankind, based on reasoning that every 
one can understand ; truths evident and 
clear as day. The divine authority of 
the Catholic Church is also one of these 
great truths. 

Some even of the unbelieving ones of 
our days assert this; and Proudhon, 
the boldest among them, says, that 
from the moment that any one believed 
in God, it was necessary to believe in 
Jesus Christ and to submit to the au- 
thority of the Catholic Church. " Be- 
lieve as I do," said he to Protestants 
and Atheists ; " or otherwise go on your 
knees at the feet of the Pope ! One 
must be logical ; and when one adopts 
a principle, he must know how to draw 
from, it all the consequences." 

The same Proudhon however said: 
■ 1 God is the only evil. Property is rob- 
bery. A perfect government is anar- 
chy. ' ' Common sense necessarily re- 



GREAT TRUTHS - 



37 



volted against these f ollies, and it was 
impossible, absolutely impossible, for 
an honest man, however incredulous to 
espouse the side of this enthusiast. 

And it is this same Proudhon, who 
takes it upon himself to prove logically 
and without giving any quarter, that 
one cannot, that one should not stop on 
the road, and that from the moment 
that one does not wish to adopt his 
doctrines, one must, whether he wills it 
or not, enter the Catholic Church, kneel 
and remain at the feet of the Pope, the 
Yicar of Christ and Head of the Church. 

For us who have the happiness to be- 
lieve in God and in Jesus Christ, there 
is a very simple means of distinguish- 
ing between the different Churches (or 
religious societies) that call themselves 
the true Church of Jesus Christ, which 
alone has the right to our obedience and 
to our love. In the Grospel we read that 



38 



GKEAT TRUTHS. 



our Lord, after having "heard the Apos- 
i tie St. Peter say- to him before all the 
Apostles : "Thou art Christ the Son of 
the Living God!" addressed him in 
these memorable words : £ £ Blessed art 
thou Simon Bar Jona, because flesh and 
blood hath not revealed it to thee, but 
my Father who is in heaven. And I 
say to thee : That thou art Peter ; and 
upon this rock I will build my Church." 

Mark, Christ speaks of His Church ; 
" I will build my OTiurclb" Then He 
has a Church, that is to say, He has 
founded on the earth a religious society 
composed of all His disciples, and or- 
ganized in a certain manner. JSTot only 
Jesus Christ has a Church, but He has 
only one Church ; He did not say, my 
Churches, but distinctly 16 my Church." 

Among the different Churches which 
call themselves the true Church of Je- 
sus Christ by what evident sign will 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



80 



Christians recognize this only true 
Church \ Oh ! my God ! It is very 
easy to know It, and it is Jesus Christ 
Himself who points it out to us. ' ' Thou 
art Peter" said He, "and upon this 
rock I will build my Church" 

Behold the sign, behold the certain 
mark that distinguishes the true Church 
from all the false churches. The true 
Church of Jesus Christ is the Church 
which rests upon St. Peter, that is to 
say on the Pope, the successor of St. 
Peter, inheritor of his office and of his 
Episcopal See and Head of the Church 
even to the end of the world. 

The Catholic Church alone, by the 
confession of all, is founded on St. 
Peter, on the authority of the Pope ; it 
alone, has the Pope for spiritual Chief, 
for Sovereign Pontiff, for Doctor, for 
Judge and for Pastor. Then, alone 
among all the Christian Societies who 



40 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



call themselves the Church of Jesus 
Christ, the Holy, Catholic, Apostolical, 
Roman Church is, according to the very 
words of Our Saviour, evidently the 
only true Church. 

From the time of St. Peter, the Popes, 
Bishops of Rome and successors of the 
prince of the Apostles, governed the 
Church in the name of Jesus Christ; 
there are no Bishops truly Catholic and 
Pastors truly legitimate but those who 
recognize the Pope for their Chief, as 
in the beginning the Apostles recognized 
St. Peter for their sole Chief, and under 
this title, they obeyed him in all things. 
And if a Christian wishes to know 
whether he is in the true Church of 
Jesus Christ or not, he has but to ask 
himself this simple question : Am I in 
the Church that obeys the Pope, in the 
Church of the Pope % 

Protestants sometimes call us Papists. 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



41 



They think, by thus addressing us, that 
they insult us. Without intending it 
they proclaim our first title of glory : in 
calling us Papists, that is to say disci- 
ples of the Pope, they confess what we 
have just been speaking about: what 
especially distinguishes the Catholics 
from all others, is their dependence on 
the Pope. We are Papists, disciples 
of the Pope, as we are Christians, dis- 
ciples of Christ : we are Papists, because 
we are Christians and Catholics. 

Then it is absolutely certain that the 
Catholic Church is the true Church, 
and that all Christians are obliged, if 
they wish to remain faithful to Jesus 
Christ and to God, to enter and to re- 
main in the Catholic Church. 

There is but one Church, because 
there is but one Christ, but one faith, 
but one baptism ; and there is but one 
Christ, but one religion, because there 



42 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



is but one God. Only one God, only 
one Christ, only one Church. All these 
are bound together and. make but one. 



VIIL 

IS IT ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT WE CANNOT 
BE DECEIVED IN HEARKENING TO THE POPE 
AND THE BISHOPS, THE PASTORS OF THE 
CATHOLIC CHURCH ? 

It is absolutely certain that we can- 
not be deceived in obeying the Pope 
and the Catholic Bishops, because in 
obeying them, it is Jesus Christ Him- 
self that we obey, and to obey Jesus 
Christ is to obey God Himself. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in sending 
the first Pope and the first Bishops to 
men, in order to preach to them Re- 
ligion, addressed them in these solemn 
words: " Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 
As the Father hath sent me I also send 



GREAT TRUTHS. 43 

you. Going therefore teach ye all na- 
tions : baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost. Preach the Gospel to 
every creature : He that believeth and 
is baptized shall be saved : but he that 
believeth not, shall be condemned. He 
that heareth you heareth me ; he that 
despiseth you despiseth me. And be- 
hold I am with you all days even to the 
consummation of the world. 55 

He said, moreover, to St. Peter the 
first Pope: "And I will give to thee 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven. 
And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon 
earth, it shall be bound also in heaven ; 
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. 

These words of the Son of God have 
no need of explanation. They clearly 
show that the authority of the Pope 
and of the Bishops, successors of St. 



GEEAT TRUTHS, 



Peter and of the Apostles, is the au- 
thority of Jesus Christ Himself, and 
that when the Pope teaches, commands 
or condemns, it is Jesus Christ, it is 
God Himself who by the mouth of His 
representative here below, teaches,com- 
m a nds, condemns. Always assisted by 
God, when he speaks to the Church, 
the Pope cannot be deceived, conse- 
quently he cannot deceive us either : 
his word, his authority is the infallible 
word ? the supreme authority of Our 
Lord Jesus Christ No person on the 
earth, understand this well 7 no person 
has the right to say to the Pope : " You 
are mistaken; I will not obey you.' r 
Obedience to the Pastors of the Church 
and principally to the supreme Pastor,, 
such is then, for every human creature, 
the very simple and very easy means of 
knowing exactly what it is necessary to 
believe, what it is necessary to do, what 



GRExVT TRUTHS. 



45 



it is necessary to avoid in order to be a 
disciple of Jesus Christ. 

It suffices to hear one' s priest, who is 
sent by the Bishop, who is in his turn 
the representative of the Pope, the re- 
presentative of God. By this union of 
faith, of teaching and of perfect obe- 
dience between our priests, our Bishops 
and the Pope, each Christian is united 
to Jesus Christ, as the fruit of a tree is 
united to the root by the trunk, by the 
larger branches and by the smaller 
branches to which it is attached. The 
Catholic Church may be likened to a 
great tree planted by God Himself, and 
which bears all the elect. 

It is not necessary to be learned, 
not even to know how to read to be a 
Christian : it suffices to be obedient, to 
have an humble sincere and faithful 
heart. And every one is capable of 
this good disposition ; each of us can 



46 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



have it, if he wishes ; those who have 
it, God blesses and fills them with his 
graces ; those who have it not, God re- 
jects them as proud and rebellious per- 
sons, as they,, in truth, are. These are 
the branches detached from the trunk, 
the boughs withered and dead. Such 
are the poor Protestants, and especially 
their ministers. 

Nothing is sweeter and more simple 
than to obey : it is disobedience that 
has caused the loss of the bad angels 
and of all the heretics ; it is obedience 
that has saved all the faithful and 
opens to them the gates of Paradise. 

Accessible to all, to the poor as to 
the rich,, to the ignorant as to the learn- 
ed r the Christian religion, which the 
Catholic Church teaches to the world, 
is likewise the popular religion, the re- 
ligion of those whom God loves with a 
love of preference : the lowly, the poor. 



GttEAT TRUTHS. 



47 



the feeble. If all should love it and 
practice it with gratitude, the laborers 
and the poor ones of the earth should 
do it with still more gratitude than the 
others. The Catholic Church is, in- 
deed, the mother of the people, the 
protectress of all those who suffer on 
the earth: a poor person who insults 
the Church, is a bad son who insults 
his mother. 



IX. 

IS IT ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT IT DOES NOT 
SUFFICE TO BE AX HONEST MAN, BUT THAT 
IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO PRACTISE 
RELIGION ? 

The Catholic Religion, which the 
Church teaches us, is the law of God, 
taught to men by the ministers of God. 
Tell me, is one free to obey the civil 



48 



GREAT TRUTHS, 



laws or not ? Evidently we must obey 
them, under a penalty of a fine or of 
imprisonment. If this is true for hu- 
man laws, what will it be for divine 
laws, for the religious laws that God 
imposes on us through His Church % 

In matters of religion, as in matters 
of propriety, one cannot do all that he 
wishes to do : just as there are obliga- 
tory laws which very properly point 
out what a proprietor, what a farmer, 
what a merchant, &c, should and 
should not do ; in the same manner 
there are obligatory laws that teach us 
very distinctly what we should do and 
avoid in matters of conscience. Divine 
justice, of which human justice is but* 
a copy, is ever hanging over the heads 
of the violators of the divine laws, in 
order to punish them as they deserve, 
either in this world by pains and by 
afflictions, or in the world to come by 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



49 



tlie terrible atonement of Purgatory, or 
by the eternal fire of hell, which is 
much more terrible still. 

These laws of conscience, to which 
we are absolutely obliged to submit, 
are the commandments of God, the 
commandments of the Church, and the 
practice of the Christian virtues : hu- 
mility, charity, meekness, mercy, par- 
don of injuries, chastity, penance, la- 
bor, love of God, filial devotion towards 
the Blessed Virgin. The practice of 
our Christian duties consists in this : 
the prayers of each day, the sanctifica- 
tion of Sundays, the observance of the 
abstinences and the fasts of the Church 3 
when health or labor does not prevent 
us from observing them ; it consists 
also in the frequentation of the sacra- 
ments, at least once a year, at Easter 
time, and more frequently if we can ; 
in a word, it consists in obedience to all 



50 



GKEAT TRUTHS. 



that the Pastors of the Church com- 
mand us, in the name of God. It does 
not suffice then to be an honest man 
according to the world, that is to say, 
to lead before men an honorable life ; 
one must without doubt be as they say 
an honest man ; but besides, one must 
be a good Christian, a .good Catholic ; 
one must seriously practice his religion, 
pray and adore God each day, go to 
Mass and to the offices of the Church 
on Sunday, sanctify the Lord's day, 
hear and respect the Priest, confess and 
communicate, from time to time, do as 
much good as possible, give to all good 
example, suffer patiently the trials of 
life for the love of Jesus Christ, in fine, 
to live for God' s sake. All this is obli- 
gatory : these are not simply counsels, 
but laws, commandments properly so 
called. 

Honest people according to the world 



GREAT TRUTHS. 



51 



fail in the first, the most important of 
all their duties, viz. : in their duties to- 
wards God and towards His Church. 
In practice they are apostates, that is 
to say, men who live without religion, 
as if they were not baptized, as if they 
were not children of the Church, as if 
Jesus Christ was not their Redeemer 
and their Master, as if there was no 
God, no judgment, no eternity, no 
heaven, no hell. This indifference is 
more than a sin, it is a crime, and a 
crime the more dangerous, as those who 
render themselves guilty of it will come 
by degrees to grow torpid, and become 
so completely brutalized that they no 
longer perceive what evil they do, and 
very often they will end by losing 
their faith. 

All of us, rich and poor, old and 
young, are created and placed on the 
earth, not in order to gain money, or to 



52 GEEAT TRUTHS. 

amuse ourselves, not in order to repose 
after having made a fortune, but prin- 
cipally and above all in order to serve 
God, to practice His faith, to be a good 
Christian, to live well and to die well, 
and thus to attain the eternal happi- 
ness of Heavem 

Those who do not live in this manner 
are fools of the worst sort and very 
guilty indeed : Christians alone are 
those who are truly lionest, that is to 
say, men who lead a truly good and 
honorable life, and who fulfil in a wor- 
thy manner all their duties towards 
God, towards their neighbor and to- 
wards themselves. 

May God bless you, my good reader, 
and grant you the grace of understand- 
ing well and practicing well all that I 
have just said to you. 



FINIS, 



GREAT TRUTHS: 



MGR. DE SEGUR. 

Author of Frequent Communion, Confession, 
Short and Familiar Answers to Objec- 
tions against Religion, &c. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH 

BY A 

CATHOLIC PRIEST, 



NEW YORK: 
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1880 



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